I'm sitting in the lounge of my grad school, trying to finish this week's readings before the weekend, and there are two people speaking in Korean behind me, and my ears keep perking up because of the stuff they're saying in their conversation.
Now be it understood that one thing I've historically loved about living in Korea, is being able to sit in a coffee shop where, because everybody around me's speaking a language I can't follow, it's easy to totally tune out the voices around me. The conversation around me is like ocean sounds: it's noise, meaningless, and it creates a backdrop where I can usually be pretty productive.
But today, I'm catching enough of the conversation, and understanding enough of the words, that I can't tune it out.
And that's awesome news in terms of my efforts to learn Korean...
but in terms of trying to get that damn reading done, it sucks butt.
But mostly, it's awesome.
Back to my reading now, and have a good weekend, readers.
Here's a song to make you happy:
Big Dipper, by Built to Spill
one expat's life in Korea
6 comments:
Wow I'm jealous! I can't wait to be at that level in Korean.
Always an exciting part of language-learning.
I was waiting for you to reveal the juicy story your overheard, then your post ended! Don't leave us hanging.
As far as "background noise", I've always found Korean pleasant to listen to, unlike Chinese or Japanese, which is almost like fingernails on the chalkboard to me.
I totally get what you mean.
Noise can help you focus by getting you into a state where your mind disregards everything outside.
There's even white noise .wav for download at some sites because it's supposedly useful. It worked for me, although I don't listen to it anymore.
Chris, I think what you're saying is half true.
If you listen to Chinese learning audio, you will find that it's equally as pleasant as Korean. I think the reason is because most Chinese you hear speak a sort of local dialect that deviates from the modernized "Seoul" norm.
Koreans are very trendy, so everyone tries to speak "Seoul-mal."
I think Japanese-with-dialect sounds much better than Chinese-with-dialect.
Picking up good bits of a foreign conversation is thrilling. Hell, if I just get one or two words I feel like i'm in heaven. As for studies-- maybe its the wrong studying you were getting done, but it's successful studying all the same. Bravo!
Thats awesome! I knew your books were just disguising your Eavesdropping :) Keep up the goood work and maybe you should stay out of the lounge when studying and just do it during economics :p
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